Another Camp Molly firefighting training centre is planned for the Quinte area in July.
The four-day camp will run primarily at the Hastings and Prince Edward training centre in Trenton.
Belleville Deputy Fire Chief Don Carter tells Quinte News the idea is to give 15- to 18-year-old young women a look at what firefighting is all about.
“Insight into the fire service, and not just I’ll say the flashy part of it with the hoses and the fire but uh we teach auto ex (extrication), we do firefighter survival, suppression, search and rescue. We do prevention.”
Carter adds the program teaches a communication section as well.
He added it’s not just about putting out fires but every aspect of the fire service.
When asked why teach just girls at these camps, Carter gave this answer.
” … if you look at the stats per capita, the number of females compared to male counterparts is very low. And this was started by Chief (Monique) Blair just to get it out there and give young ladies an opportunity to see what kinds of opportunities are in the fire service. Even outside of like the flashy part of the hoses and the flames. It’s not just that, it’s also the other aspect of it, but it was just to give them an opportunity to see what is involved, if it would be something they’d be interested in.”
Carter explained, “We have an old consul from a dispatch centre similar to the one we have in Belleville. We actually simulate calls that the young women can deal with at the time. We also have a burn cell which is basically a small room that we will burn. We’ll put it out and then the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office investigators, they will come in and then they will show the young ladies how they would go through to investigate that fire in the burn cell.”
This year there will be two women from last year’s course who will come back to help with the training.
Carter says, “On the last day we do a kind of combat challenge and graduation. That’s on Sunday at Belleville Station 1 on Bettes Street.”
The entire training program runs from July 13 to 16.
The entire training program runs from July 13 to 16.
